t! Can't you see that this a very crucial moment?" He
pointed to Annie Halliway on the grass. Her Mother knelt beside her
trying very hard to comb Old Man Smith and his wheel-chair out of her
pig-tail. "Speak to her!" said the Doctor. "Speak to her very gently!"
"Annie?" cried her Mother. "Annie?--Annie--_Annie?_"
Annie Halliway opened her eyes very slowly and looked up. It was a brand
new kind of a look. It had a bottom to it instead of being just through
and through and through. There was a little smile in it too. It was a
pretty look.
"Why, Mother," said Annie Halliway. "Where am I?"
The Special Man from New York made a queer little sound in his throat.
"Thank God!" he said. "She's all right _now_!"
It seemed pretty quick to me.
"You mean--" I said, "that her Mysteria is all cured--now?"
"Not _Mys_teria," said the Special Man from New York, _"Hys_teria!"
"No!--_Her_steria!" corrected Old Man Smith.
The Special Man from New York began to laugh.
But Annie Halliway's Mother began to cry.
"Oh, just suppose we'd never found her?" she cried. She looked at Carol.
She looked at me. She glared a little. But not so awfully much. "When
you naughty children ran away with her?" she cried. "And we couldn't
find her anywhere?--And the Doctor came? And there was only an hour to
spare?--And we got a horse and drove round anywhere? And--And----"
"I wouldn't have missed it for anything!" said the Special Man from New
York.
"And all your appointments waiting?" cried Annie Halliway's Mother.
"Darn the appointments!" said the Special Man from New York. He slanted
his head and looked at Old Man Smith. "We arrived," he said, "just at
the moment when the young lady was gazing so--so intently at the piece
of shiny glass." He made a funny grunt in his throat. "Let me
congratulate you, Mr.--Mr. Smith!" he said. "Your treatment was most
efficient!--Your hypnosis was perfect! Your----"
"Hip _nothing_!" said Old Man Smith.
"Of course, in a case like this," said the Special Man from New York,
"the Power of Suggestion is always----"
"All young folks," said Old Man Smith, "are cases of one kind or
another--and the most powerful suggestion that I can make is that
somebody find 'Harry!'"
"'Harry?'" said Annie Halliway's Mother. "'_Harry?_'--Why, I've got four
letters at home for Annie in my desk now--from some im--impetuous young
man who signs himself 'Harry!'--He seems to be in an Architect's office
in Paris!
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